Friday, November 16, 2007

Research Position: Tsunami Modeling

Suitable candidates with very high research motivation in the field of tsunami modeling are invited to attend the Walk-in-interview along with their CV and supportive certificates on 23rd November 2007 at 9:30 AM in the Department of Applied Geology, Guindy Campus (Opp: to Gandhi Mandapam), University of Madras, Chennai.

The post is a temporary position (up to March 2008) in the Ministry of Earth Sciences funded research project entitled “Establishment of National Early Warning System for Tsunami & Storm Surges in Indian Ocean” .

Selected candidates need to undertake fieldwork along coastal areas of India.

No TA/DA will be given for attending the interview.

For more details please contact:
Dr. R. R. Krishnamurthy
Senior Lecturer in Applied Geology
Scientific Officer to the Vice-Chancellor &
Adjunct Faculty in Center for Ocean and Coastal Studies
University of Madras
Post Bag # 5327, Chennai 600 025

Tel: 0091-44-22531786
email:rrkrishnamurthy@gmail.com
Fax: 0091-44-24961561 (or) 22352870
Mobile: (91) 9840123142

TRINet: Tsunami Rehab Information Network
www.trinet.in

Get to Interact With Dr Ramaswamy R Iyer on Nov 21st

Dear Friends,

Arghyam cordially invites you for an interaction session with Dr. Ramaswamy R Iyer where he will talk about his new book "Towards Water Wisdom - Limits, Justice, Harmony" on November 21st, 2007.


The Event Schedule and Venue are as follows:


Time: 4:30pm – 6:30pm

Tea : 4:30 - 5:00pm

Talk : 5:00 – 5:30pm

Interaction: 5:30 - 6:30pm

Venue: The Aeronautical Society of India, Suranjandas Road, Opp: HAL Engine Division,
New Tippasandra Post, Off Old Madras Road,
Behind Fuscos School, Bangalore: 560075
Ph: 080 25297159

RSVP is mandatory. Kindly RSVP to Nirmala at (080) 41698941-42 or nirmala@arghyam.org.

Regards,

Sunita Nadhamuni
CEO, Arghyam
Bangalore

Enough water, safe water....always and for all

Mobile: 09343718064 / Office: (080) 41698941/42
Email: sunita@arghyam.org, info@arghyam.org
Websites: www.arghyam.org, www.indiawaterportal.org


Here are some details about the book:


Towards Water Wisdom - Limits, Justice, Harmony

Authored by: Ramaswamy R Iyer
Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi
________________________________________
Description:
There is a widespread view that a water crisis is looming. Towards Water Wisdom: Limits, Justice, Harmony stresses the need for an urgent and radical transformation of our thinking on water management. The first section evaluates the water scene in India, redefining the projected crisis as one of mismanagement more than scarcity. It calls for a shift from supply-side engineering to restraining the increase in demand, for conservation and more equitable management.

The second and third sections deal with water-related conflict, including detailed discussions of the Indus Treaty, Baglihar, the Cauvery disputes and rehabilitation problems in the Narmada Valley. Conflicting rights are juxtaposed: the fundamental right to water, contractual rights of corporations, economic use rights of irrigators and industries, the advocacy of property rights by the World Bank, and neoliberal economists. The analysis points to the emergence of water markets.

The fourth section examines the inadequacies of water laws and policies and the changes that are necessary. The fifth section presents national water concerns in other South Asian countries. At the international/global level, it deconstructs several notions and prescriptions currently in vogue, and takes note of significant new thinking. Finally, the author widens the perspective beyond water to the total system of which it is a part, and draws attention to a dynamic world scenario that makes a change in our thinking imperative.


Reviews:
• This authoritative and timely book will help to replace heat with light in dealing with water issues…this extraordinarily valuable contribution will make a significant impact on contemporary discussions on water conflicts. - M.S. Swaminathan
• The author must be congratulated for integrating the various issues under the important phrase in the title, [Towards] Water Wisdom, based on fundamental ethical principles of human dignity and equality, of water being a common good and participation by all concerned in its management. - M.G.K. Menon

• This book stresses the need for an urgent and radical transformation of our thinking on water management.
(e Social Science www.esocialsciences.com/booksinfo/bookdetails.asp?bookid=32 )

• Towards Water Wisdom makes a fervent plea for an urgent and radical transformation of our thinking on water. The author redefines the projected water crisis as one of mismanagement rather than scarcity, and calls for a more equitable, harmonious and sustainable management of the resource - Water Digest, Aug 15, 2007

• This is not a book therefore that has neat solutions to a massive global challenge of which the water crisis is only a part. Indeed its purpose is to convey a complexity that eludes easy solutions. According to the author, development can theoretically at least be informed by sanity, balance and wisdom; technology too could be benign. But can this transformation take place in a world where the challenge of environmental protection is global, but where any plan of action must tie together initiatives from the community upwards? - The Hindu, Tuesday, Sep 25, 2007

Be a Commutiny Fellow!

This is a fellowship for young people between the ages of 20 and 27 years

For more details check out

http://www.commutiny.in/ccc.html#contact

Plant Trees for Free!

These people - www. treesforfree.org - will come and plant trees for you wherever you ask them to, free of cost.

Just call on 98454 49703 or email: rajanetyeg@gmail.com

Companies can adopt these trees by sponsoring them at Rs.100 per tree. The organization also plants trees in schools, orphanages etc.

Of course, you need to look after them afterwards. May be you would like to get some new trees planted in Bangalore, for all the ones that are being killed.

First Announcement: International Conference on ‘Invasive plants: management, utilisation and livelihoods’



The Oxford-Princeton Global Leaders Programme

Dear Readers,

I am involved in an exciting post-doctoral fellowship program, with Oxford, exclusively for nationals of non-OECD countries. This program is a partnership between Oxford's Center for Economic Governance, led by Ngaire Woods, and the Niehaus Center for Globalization and Governance, led by Helen Milner, at Princeton. We have very generous funding for up to six two-year post-doctoral fellowships a year. Fellows will spend their first year at Oxford, and their second year at Princeton. We plan to build a network of alumni, linked to our already-instituted Global Advisory Council on distinguished scholars working in developing countries.

The purpose of the program is to help increase the capacity of developing countries to negotiate on more equal terms with rich countries. We envisage our fellows returning with ideas and skills that will enable them both to train new cohorts of people with relevant expertise, and to participate in government themselves.

Candidates must either have a doctoral degree or be in the process of completing one, and they must intend to return to their own countries, or to other developing countries, for their career. We do not require a formal agreement, but in interviews we will seek to explore the depth of candidates' personal commitments to return to help their countries.

I am writing to solicit your help. Could you please take a moment to think both of potential applicants, known to you, and more senior people, especially in developing countries, who might know such potential applicants? Please feel free to forward this note and send the attached materials.

Further details are available on the Global Leaders Fellows website at Oxford. There is a link to this site on the Niehaus Center website. These addresses are as follows:

Website: http://glf.politics.ox.ac.uk/index.asp
Niehaus Center, Princeton: http://www.princeton.edu/~pcglobal/

Sincerely yours,

Bob Keohane
rkeohane@Princeton.EDU

Contributed by Harini Nagendra, Adjunct Fellow, ATREE